François Boucher

François Boucher is a French Rococo painter, favorite artist of Madame de Pompadour whose voluptuous and decorative work embodies the gallant and hedonistic spirit of Louis XV's reign. Student of François Lemoyne and admirer of Watteau, he develops a style characterized by pastel colors, sinuous compositions and refined sensuality that dominates French aristocratic decoration for thirty years. His gallant mythologies, where rosy nymphs and chubby cupids evolve in idyllic landscapes, create a universe of sublimated erotic pleasure that defines Rococo taste. First painter of the king and director of the Academy, he dominates all aspects of decorative arts, from history painting to tapestry cartoons, from porcelain drawings to opera sets. Although criticized by Diderot for his artifice and condemned by Neoclassicism as symbol of aristocratic decadence, his decorative genius and chromatic virtuosity make him one of the greatest colorists of French painting.